Marty Caplan
Game Design and Consulting
Game Design and Consulting
I love tabletop gaming. Always have and always will. Why? It’s something about creating a whole world with others around the table that is just my favorite thing to do in the world.
So, join me, won’t you? Let’s have tabletop adventures in person in the San Francisco Bay Area or via virtual tabletop with Roll20.
From high and low swords and sorcery fantasy to horror set in our Lovecraftian past and present, to near and far future sci-fi adventures in apocalyptic Earth, space or beyond, I can tailor an epic one-shot or ongoing campaign experience for you!
I often design custom setpieces using bespoke cards, props and puzzles to bring something even more special to the table, all working in theme. For instance, replacing dice with cards and chips for a Western game, or creating a sound puzzle that requires players to assemble audio clues in pitch dark, or using walkie-talkies to stay in touch with an undersea rover, or using a warehouse theater complex to model 3 universes breaking apart!
For brave souls ready for an intense emotional experience, I run games that offer R-rated content and choices where soul-searching in-character is driven by participatory narrative and worldbuilding. These can revolve around time periods like the Gold Rush in 1840s, Weimar Berlin in 1933, The Haight/Ashbury in 1967, or other historic or literary era where I do extensive research and game writing then dive in with a group to explore the beautiful and emotional themes of life at the time.
I can organize and host not only nightly experiences, but create and produce a whole weekend’s worth of entertainment in an evocative location like a hotel, campground or resort. These can include tabletop games, live action experiences and performance art all themed to your desires, wrapped in a metanarrative experience that will create an unforgettable memory.
Learning to work as a team to assess, plan, execute and emerge victorious is the core loop of roleplaying games! Teams can find new ways to relate to each other, build trust and transfer emotional intelligence from playing roleplaying games together. As a certified Agile Scrummaster I can extensive coaching and process insight to your game and make it fun to forge a team!
Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition / Delta Green
Dungeon World / Apocalypse World
World Of Darkness: Vampire, Werewolf, Changeling, Mage
Fiasco
Invisible Sun
Bespoke or others on request
The Secret of Zir’An - high powered fantasy pulp adventure world
Gatsby and the Great Race - Lovecraftian Immersive tabletop with dinner and drinks
The Madonna Innvitational - weekend gaming takeover of the famous landmark hotel
STARTER SET | Beginner’s D&D 5e 4-hour One-Shot for 4 players
I’ll give you a tutorial on a game system of choice, guide make characters and answer the call to adventure as heroes!
THERE AND BACK AGAIN | Every other week, campaign story for 6 months - for 4-6 people, 12 total sessions, paid monthly.
Every two weeks have the serialized experience using a published adventure plus my spin and your alternate personas, where deep character arcs are encouraged and lead to life-changing insights into yourself and our friends
IRREVOCABLY CHANGED | Deep Inquiry 6-hour Game Run - 4-6 people tabletop roleplaying experience with custom gameplay
Face your inner fears, go wild and cultivate hopes in an alternate life, set in a historical period or fictional world with a bespoke game that includes custom design game mechanics, prewritten characters with relationships,
MINICON | A 12-hour day’s gaming for 8-108 people - 2 tabletop one-shot game sessions of up to 8 people per table
We will organize a one-day game convention in your office, house or other location for a large group of friends like a reunion or wedding party, or company team quarterly activity or offsite.
AN INVITATIONAL | Weekend Experience for 8-100 people - Themed retreat inclusive of gaming, lodging, transport and food
I’ll work with you to design an epic weekend getaway with three 4-hour tabletop or larp games over 2 days framed with a meta-experience in a California location reached by train, boat or car with your desired themes and aesthetics. Great for a dedicated corporate retreat, high school or college reunion, ultra geek wedding, or just a great getaway with friends.
All sessions can be recorded for your podcast or sharing, at an additional cost.
Session 1 - "The Heart of Iron"
Ando, Andalin, and Reef joined their worldly friend Gundren Rockseeker on the Iron Heart, a ship bound for Neverwinter. An ill-fated storm threw them off course and an attack by the mysterious Sea Folk resulted in a fateful shipwreck.
Down into the depths of the sea to the village of the Sea Folk they went, miraculously able to breathe and speak under the waves. They found a tribe cursed to remain by the power of the Sea Demon, whose power held them in a terrible thrall.
Velthur, the priest of the Sea Folk, intoned this saga -
“In the twilight days
Before dying eyes looked to heaven,
The proud Storm-Lord flew
Too near the abyssal deeps,
Where covetous Tiamat,
Queen of the Chaos ocean,
Seized his thunderous glory,
Dragged him to her lightless lair,
And begat of him the Nameless,
The Cruel Lurker, the Blood-Hungry,
That mortals call the Sea Demon.”
Convincing the Sea Folk of their good intentions, the heroes were gifted an enchanted necklace to show their trusted nature and rose to the shore via a winding, sheltered path through the coral.
Upon the shore the Heart of Iron crew salvaged what they could, the heroes helping raise spirits and procuring food until the storm passed. The odd mechanical musician introduced itself as Chord and seemed willing to join the heroes on their "next performance."
When the rain and clouds cleard, a twisted and unnatural temple to the Sea Demon was revealed not far away, made from living but unholy fusion of coral, sinew and chitin. Captain Helia and her first mate Jambo negotiated an equal share of the Sea Demon's Gold and the six set off to loot the Sea Demon's temple.
Within the temple the heroes encountered even more bizarre sounds, smells and places, all shrines to the Sea Demon with coins from the victims who had come before. Descending into the dimly luminous dark, fighting clicking giant crabs and tangling with the horribly thrashing tendrils of a violet fungi and a vine blight upon the seaweed Shrine, the heroes destroy the unnatural beasts and animated plants. Jambo, nearly crushed to death, has fled back the way they came. A further passage beckons with strange moans, crashing and grinding waves and odd clicks echoing from even farther below.
Treasure!
Necklace of Communal Water Breathing - cast 1/day affecting up to 4 other humanoids within 10' radius for 8 hours (Ando)
17sp
24gp
AS MUCH MUTANT CRAB MEAT AS YOU CAN STOMACH!
Big thanks to Arc Dream for letting me playtest their amazing new adventure THE SEA DEMON’S GOLD!